Vulcan Rocket Failure Wipes Out 40 Amazon Leo Satellites
ULA's first total failure in 20 years cost Amazon 40 Starlink rival satellites and could ground Vulcan for months, slowing a network that needs over 3,200.
Hakkı ALKANPublished 4 min read
United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket failed about 10 minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, November 15, destroying all 40 Amazon Leo internet satellites on board. It is the first complete mission failure in ULA's 20-year history, and it came on Vulcan's first flight in nine months.
The rocket lifted off at 12:40 p.m. EST (9:40 a.m. PST). About 50 minutes later, ULA confirmed on X that the vehicle "suffered an anomaly 10 minutes into the flight and failed to deliver the Amazon mission to orbit." The company has not named a cause.
Based on data received by our Launch Director, we confirm that the Vulcan vehicle launched from Space Launch Complex 41 suffered an anomaly 10 minutes into the flight and failed to deliver the Amazon mission to orbit.
— ULA (@ulalaunch) November 15, 2026
What Went Wrong on the Vulcan Rocket?
ULA has not said yet. The company said it will work with Amazon "and other appropriate organizations to find the cause, determine the appropriate corrective action and return to flight as quickly as possible."
The early flight looked normal. According to Spaceflight Now, the six Northrop Grumman solid rocket boosters (strap-on motors that add thrust for the first minutes) worked as expected and dropped away about 1 minute 40 seconds after launch. Those boosters were the reason Vulcan sat out for nine months, after nozzle problems on flights in October 2024 and February 2026.
The trouble appears to have come later. Spaceflight Now noted that the two Blue Origin BE-4 engines on the first stage seemed to fire longer than ULA's pre-launch timeline, and that the Centaur upper stage, the hydrogen-fueled second stage that pushes the payload into orbit, made unusual orientation changes early in its planned 12-minute burn. These are observations from the broadcast and telemetry animation, not an official finding.
The countdown was also bumpy. A Friday attempt was scrubbed after a nitrogen plant failure at the Cape, Saturday was lost to network problems, and Sunday's count paused at T-minus 20 seconds for a technical issue that ULA resolved before launching at the end of the window. It is not known whether that issue played any role.
Why Does It Hurt Amazon Leo?
Amazon Leo, formerly Project Kuiper, is Amazon's answer to SpaceX's Starlink. It needs more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit, a band a few hundred kilometers up where satellites can deliver low-latency internet. This flight would have lifted Amazon's total launched to 436.
Making satellites is not the problem. As we reported in October, Amazon's factory in Kirkland, Washington, had already built more than 1,000 Leo satellites and can turn out up to five a day. At that peak rate, 40 satellites is about eight days of output, while a grounded rocket can cost months.
Amazon Leo struck a calm tone. "There is risk with any launch, and that's especially true for inaugural missions like LV-01," it posted on X, adding that ULA "has been a trusted partner" and that it expects ULA to "learn from this mission."
Which Rockets Can Amazon Still Use?
Sunday's mission was the first of 38 Vulcan flights Amazon has bought. Its other big heavy-lift option is also stuck: Blue Origin pushed New Glenn's return to flight to January 2027 after a pad explosion in May traced to a valve in a BE-4 engine, the same engine family Vulcan uses. Blue Origin had retrofitted the engines on this Vulcan with a fix.
| Rocket | Amazon Leo launches | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Atlas V (ULA) | 8 flown | Workhorse so far |
| Vulcan (ULA) | 38 booked | First flight failed, investigation underway |
| New Glenn (Blue Origin) | 24 booked | Grounded until at least January 2027 |
| Ariane 6 (Arianespace) | 24 booked | Flying |
| Falcon 9 (SpaceX) | 13 booked | Flying |
That leaves Ariane 6 and, ironically, rival SpaceX's Falcon 9 as the rockets most likely to keep Leo moving in the near term. SpaceX, meanwhile, just caught a Starship upper stage for the first time, widening the launch gap Amazon has to close.
What Happens Next for ULA and Amazon Leo?
Vulcan now faces a potentially long grounding while engineers review flight data. The stakes go beyond Amazon: the U.S. Space Force relies on Vulcan for national security launches, and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman offered help on X, writing that "Artemis, Moon Base, and the nation need ULA."
For users waiting on Amazon Leo, the likely effect is a slower rollout rather than a cancelled one. Amazon plans to start commercial service in the US, Canada, the UK, France and Germany first, and it has not announced a timeline for other markets such as Turkey. Each month without Vulcan or New Glenn makes that coverage build more slowly.